Very neat! I had a lot of fun with this. This identified Paul Eckman as one of the major researchers in facial expression studies. Three (or is it four?) years ago I was part of a research study at University of California run by Paul Eckman! He is a VERY interesting guy and has worked with the Dalai Lama for years on some of the Dalai Lama's intiatives. He's also studied Bhuddist monks physiology before, during and after meditation.

The study I participated in was looking at the effect of teaching meditation to people in high stress jobs - and the first go-round they used teachers! We had a 3 day retreat with intensive Bhuddist meditiation training from a guy (a Westerner)who was one of the Dali Lama's translators! Then we had weekly classes where we talked about what was stressing us and strategized about how to reduce it. They did pre & post testing where they put us through a variety of stress inducing exercises - counting backwards from one hundred by 17, a job interview with VERY antagonistic interviwers (for state superintendent of education)(I'm so perfect for that job!). They even had us bring in our spouse to discuss a "problem" issue (only one?).

The pre-test we did cold and the post test we did after having thirty minutes to meditate. They also took saliva swabs to measure hormones and hooked us up to electrodes to measure galvanic skin response.

They also taught us about facial expressions. Paul Eckman is THE definitive expert on facial expression recognition. He works with film people, the FBI and CIA, corporate execs - you name it.

I don't meditate on a regular basis any more, but everytime I think about it, I know I need to set up something ROUTINE and start doing it. One problem is the dogs, who want to sit on me when I'm sitting down. But I could leave them in another room and do it.

Anyway - neat stuff! I got MOST of them correct - 11 out of 20. I was CERTAIN I'd be higher than that. Eckman maintains that you should be able to identify these emotions by facial expressionss - including sorting out genuine from fake - in a split second. This test seemed too fast for me! _________________L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

Coo! I actually got 13 of them... I was looking at the eyes, for the 'giggle' in the eyes. But I did notice that some of the genuine ones made me smile or chuckle, so maybe that's part of it._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

is the Mona Lisa smiling slyly because she knows she's pregnant, or because she knows she isn't?

She's smiling slyly because she's managed to snaffle Leonardo's last box of champagne truffles and he hasn't realised yet! And that explains the slight swell in the stomach area!!_________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Unfortunately, I got that link from a place that gave a very important clue so I have no idea what my results would have been if I hadn't read that first. But by the end I was deciding even before the video and still made pretty good predictions.

For me, it was how much/quickly they recovered from the smile as much as the energy in it or the general facial response. And I don't know how that reflects on me, the subject or the videographer who may have been more careful about where the video stopped and started.

Yes, this business of facial expressions is very interesting. I read in a Psychology Today many many years ago, that you can interpret a facial expression from across a football field without even being able to actually identify the face. I suppose some allowance would have to be made for people's visual accuity but if it's true it's quite an amazing skill we don't even necessarily know we have._________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

you can interpret a facial expression from across a football field without even being able to actually identify the face. I suppose some allowance would have to be made for people's visual accuity but if it's true it's quite an amazing skill we don't even necessarily know we have.

I suppose that would be a left over survival trait, if you can tell someone's looking with unbridled rage at that distance you have time to hide... well it's always worked for me!

I admit that the recovery from the smile did occur to me too for checking the sincerity, but checking before the video!! Oh you're good!

Raven,
Clearly you are more perceptive than even you guessed!_________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

I got 17 out of 20. Donna I meditate every day. I'm going to hear the Dalai Lama speak on Sunday. My cousin was involved with his visit to Perth last weekend and after a meeting with the people from theBuddhist centre where her husband is a member, the Dalai Lama took her hand and walked with her to the dining room._________________Barbara

you can interpret a facial expression from across a football field without even being able to actually identify the face. I suppose some allowance would have to be made for people's visual accuity but if it's true it's quite an amazing skill we don't even necessarily know we have.

I suppose that would be a left over survival trait, if you can tell someone's looking with unbridled rage at that distance you have time to hide... well it's always worked for me!

I think I can do a similar thing with drivers. Don't know what it is, exactly, but I often have an instinctual thing to back off from some people only to see them do some erratic and potentially dangerous thing that I can't relate to any clear signal. Then, of course, I'll do or say some completely brain dead thing that I had every reason to avoid but seemed hellbent on anyway..._________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

okay, so i got 14 out of 20, but i'm notorious for expecting the best of people--even the rotten ones. i strongly suspect that my husband, he of the greater "street smarts", would have come up more successful in his predictions. but he's always had a better "read" on people, especially of the less likeable ones. i've seen him position himself physically in public situations where he read danger or unpleasantness into the circumstances when i never noticed a thing. he was always right.

and so, he's been protecting me for 40 years. obviously, i've needed it!

Yes, I tried it again and covered the mouths so I could only see the eyes, and my score went from 12 to 16. Some were actually laughing, and some just smiling, so the eye "crinkling" was less. In real life when we look at a person smiling we are looking into their eyes, not their teeth, usually. But I suppose we have all been fooled by, and have fooled, those we know best.
What surprised me was that I immediately liked or disliked almost all those people--split second reaction based on nothing but facial expression!